Chapter 67: The Confession

Zuo Jinzhong led several dozen archers and several musketeers to the rear garden of the Fan residence. In one corner of the garden stood a two-story wooden building, with over a hundred guardsmen scattered in hiding behind the large trees and rockeries. An arrow was stuck in one of the trees, clearly shot from upstairs.

That Centurion waved his hand, and two guardsmen carried over a door that had been removed from its hinges, shielding Zuo Jinzhong. If a Chiliarch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard were to be killed by a stray arrow here, word spreading would make everyone hold their heads down in shame for the rest of their lives.

Zuo Jinzhong asked: "Who's inside? How many?"

That Centurion surnamed Liu replied: "About five or six people. They haven't said a word, so we don't know which faction they're from. They have two bows and shoot very accurately. One of our brothers got hit on the brim of his helmet—nearly lost his life!"

Zuo Jinzhong ordered: "Take off a few doors to use as shields, protect the musketeers as they stand below the building and fire into the rooms. Gather firewood and cooking oil, pile them on the first floor, and prepare to set a fire!"

Centurion Liu said: "Sir, you don't want any survivors? We still don't know who these people are. Anyone who could hide here might have significant backing!"

A guardsman hurried over and reported: "Sir, Fan Yongdou has confessed. Hidden in the building are Jianzhou barbarians, five in total, and their leader is a niru janggin!"

Zuo Jinzhong burst into loud laughter: "Hahaha! We've hit the jackpot this time! Damn, he's even a leader! This is our chance for promotion and riches, brothers! Do exactly as I said! Go now!"

The Fan household, including servants, numbered nearly two hundred people, with over a dozen kitchens and stoves of various sizes. Before long, large quantities of firewood and cooking oil were brought over. At Zuo Jinzhong's command, shielded by several wide door panels, seven musketeers advanced to about ten paces from the building, raised their muskets at the upstairs rooms, and prepared to fire. Several dozen bows were also aimed at the upstairs windows and doors—if anyone showed themselves to fight back, they'd be shot into a sieve. Several guardsmen carrying kindling were also ready; once the muskets fired, they would run into the first-floor rooms. They only needed to pile the materials in one room—once a wooden structure caught fire, the flames would spread quickly.

Downstairs, so many people were bustling about, yet upstairs there was no movement at all. With a single command, seven muskets fired in succession. The shot pellets rattled against the upstairs windows and doors, sending splinters flying everywhere, while thick clouds of gunpowder smoke rose in the courtyard.

The guardsmen carrying kindling rushed forward together, quickly ran into the first-floor rooms, rapidly stacked up the firewood, and poured large buckets of cooking oil over it, ready to set the building ablaze at any moment.

After the muskets fell silent, two figures flashed into view at the broken windows of the upstairs rooms, and immediately two long arrows flew with the whistle of wind toward the musketeers below. With two soft thuds, the arrows embedded themselves in the door panels.

The archers below released their fingers one after another, and several dozen arrows flew toward their targets. A burst of crackling sounds rang out—the Jianzhou barbarians upstairs had ducked back into cover right after shooting. Most of the dozens of arrows stuck into the walls, while a few flew through the gaps into the rooms.

After several dozen breaths, the musketeers finally finished reloading. After Zuo Jinzhong gave the order, the guardsmen on the first floor used fire strikers to ignite the firewood. Flames leaped up rapidly. As the muskets rang out, the guardsmen who had lit the fire scrambled to flee through the doors. The blaze was already burning fiercely, and choking thick smoke rose upward.

After the muskets were spent, the musketeers withdrew, and the archers immediately followed with another volley. The guardsmen who had started the fire escaped and took cover in safe places. Everyone stared intently at the upper floor, on guard against a desperate last stand from the Jianzhou barbarians.

The fire grew hotter and hotter, and soon the floorboards between the stories caught fire. Thick smoke poured through the burned-through gaps into the second-floor rooms. Before long, with several furious roars, several figures burst out of the rooms and were about to kick through the railing and leap down to fight to the death. A series of bowstrings twanged, and these Jianzhou barbarians were riddled with triangular-headed long arrows. Except for one who tumbled from the upper floor to the ground, the other four all fell, struck by arrows, on the upper floor.

Zuo Jinzhong shouted: "Go up and finish them off and take their heads! Don't bother with the ones upstairs! The fire's too big!"

Several guardsmen rushed forward holding embroidered sabers and stabbed several more bloody holes into the dead Jianzhou barbarian. One guardsman cleanly chopped off the barbarian's head with a single stroke, then, holding it by the braided queue at the back of the skull, ran cheerfully to Zuo Jinzhong: "Sir, the head you wanted!"

Zuo Jinzhong raised his foot in a mock kick and laughed as he scolded: "It's not made of gold—what would I want it for? Get lost! Go find some lime to preserve it and pack it in a wooden box! We'll take it back to the capital and deliver it to Lord Luo, saying this is the head of that so-and-so niru leader! This is a great achievement! In all the years of Liaodong's hundred-thousand-plus border troops, have they ever captured the head of a Jianzhou barbarian leader!"

With a dull crash, as the fire burned through the beams and pillars, the two-story building finally collapsed to the ground, and the corpses of the several Jianzhou barbarians turned to ashes. Since this building stood alone with no other structures adjacent, the fire would not spread through the entire Fan residence. This grand mansion would ultimately be auctioned off, marking the complete dissolution of the Fan family that had once been among the wealthiest in the region.

House searches were the traditional craft of the Embroidered Uniform Guard—the experience and methods accumulated over many years were rich beyond measure. Gold, silver, and antiques hidden in the Fan residence's secret corners were constantly being found and brought out. Fan Yongdou initially only revealed trivial or public matters, refusing to confess anything secret and important. Without a word, the Embroidered Uniform Guard's torture expert had Fan Yongdou's ten-year-old son brought in, bound him to a bed, stripped off his undergarments, and waved a gleaming ox-horn dagger around while muttering to himself: "Such a handsome boy—if we castrate him and send him to some prince, he'd never want for food or clothing for the rest of his life. Tsk tsk!"

The ten-year-old child, who had lived a life of luxury since birth, had never seen such a scene. Trembling all over with fear, he cried out for his father to save him. Fan Yongdou's eyes split wide with rage, and like a mad tiger he lunged forward, but two burly guardsmen pinned him firmly to his chair. Watching his most beloved son about to become a eunuch, Fan Yongdou finally broke. With reddened eyes, he shouted repeatedly: "I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! Please spare Song'er!"

That Centurion in charge of the interrogation smiled: "Master Fan, wouldn't it have been better to do this from the start? As long as you confess honestly, your descendants will be preserved. This was specially ordered by His Majesty to our Guard Commander. His Majesty said: only the chief culprits will be punished; crimes do not extend to wives and children. This is an imperial decree of golden words and jade pronouncements. It's only because the current emperor is merciful—in former times, a crime like yours would have meant the execution of your entire household! Hurry up, be quick about it! For the sake of your wife and children, tell us everything you've done!"

The other seven, including Wang Dengku, upon seeing their relatives specially brought before them by the Embroidered Uniform Guard guardsmen, saw the last shred of illusion in their hearts shattered. So this time they were going to be taken in one fell swoop—the authorities had long since investigated everything in detail and were merely waiting for orders from above. Now, the enormous fortunes they had painstakingly built over several generations all became spoils for others. If only they had known this would happen, they would never have done what they did. Silver was gleaming white, but their own hearts had turned black.

After the Embroidered Uniform Guard officer in charge of interrogation read out the decree that crimes did not extend to wives and children, and passed around the imperial edict bearing the jade seal for all to see, everyone's psychological defenses completely collapsed. Since the court had classified their crime as equivalent to treasonous collusion with the enemy, their only hope was to preserve a single thread of their bloodline. And Chongzhen, having traveled here from a later age, carried within him deeply ingrained concepts of legal fairness and sympathy for the weak. Fan Yongdou and the others also knew that their actions were equivalent to aiding the enemy; to be cautious, they had never let their families participate in or even know of these secret affairs. But even so, if Zhu Zhenqing had not traveled through time, by the previous rules, at minimum their entire clans would have been exterminated to the third degree.

As the investigation and confiscation of the eight wealthy merchants' assets deepened, the scribes the Embroidered Uniform Guard had brought were nowhere near sufficient. The wealth of the eight families was simply too vast—all kinds of gold, silver, jade objects, antiques, paintings and calligraphy, shops and warehouses, and various goods, including the several hundred cartloads of supplies prepared for this trade with the Manchus, all had to be inventoried, verified, and recorded one by one. In the end, they had to requisition scribes from the Governor-General and Governor's offices who had not been implicated to help with the counting and bookkeeping. Even so, it took over a hundred scribes ten days to finish inventorying everything. Of course, it was inevitable that some people took the opportunity to skim along the way—when a pig is slaughtered, anyone who handles it is bound to get a bit of grease on their hands.